The North Face places new focus on women

Outdoor apparel and footwear brand The North Face has launched its
first-ever global campaign focused on women to celebrate a new generation
of what it is calling “adventurous and courageous” female explorers, to
coincide with the news it is to open two women-specific stores in the
US.

The ‘Move Mountains’ campaign, developed with Sid Lee LA and the brand,
focuses on women who push boundaries, including North Face athletes,
alpinist Hilaree Nelson, climbing phenoms Ashima Shiraishi and Margo Hayes,
and ultrarunner and activist Fernanda Maciel, in a series of short films
narrated by fellow role models who admire them.

They feature in the campaign alongside women who the brand are
describing as “explorers beyond physical exploration,” like women’s
empowerment advocate actress America Ferrera, NASA scientist Tierra Guinn
Fletcher, and musician and activist Madame Gandhi.

The aim of the campaign isn’t just to celebrate the stories of those
that embody the spirit of the brand, but also to empower the next
generation, and The North Face has stated it is also part of its wider
commitment to “equal representation” of women across of its advertising,
social media and content moving forward.

The North Face to expand female offering, as well as open two
women-specific stores

The outdoor brand will also be applying the spirit of the ‘Move
Mountains’ campaign to its internal business by increasing investment in
women’s product design, renewed focus on employee development and ensured
closure of the gender pay gap on the athlete team, the brand said in a
statement.

This female-focused product expansion will start with bottoms, which the
brand is reinventing through compression, core support and vision science,
and new styles and silhouettes will be available this month in-store and
online, including high-waisted leggings and contoured tech leggings.

This focus on women will also see The North Face opening two
women-specific stores in 2018. The first, located in Edina, Minnesota, will
focus on the brand’s running and training apparel, while the second women’s
store in San Francisco, California will carry all women’s product lines,
including running and training gear, mountain and urban focused
products.

“We know better than anyone that there are plenty of women out there who
are already accomplishing incredible, inspiring things every day. Yet women
and girls don’t see themselves represented as ‘explorers’,” said Tom
Herbst, global vice president of marketing at The North Face. “We had a
simple theory that if women and girls see more role models in exploration,
it will create more female role models for future generations.”

The North Face to partner with Girl Scouts of the USA

To help enable the next generation of women to push boundaries, The
North Face also announced a multi-year outdoor adventure collaboration with
the Girl Scouts of the USA that includes support for the creation of 12 new
Girl Scouts outdoor adventure badges with programming ranging from
mountaineering and climbing, to backpacking, hiking and trail running for
Girl Scouts throughout the US.

Ferrera, a former Girl Scout, has signed up to be one of the faces of
the initiative, to help encourage girls to explore, both outdoors and
beyond in their everyday lives.

“The time is now to begin levelling the playing field so that young
women and girls grow up seeing women who are already out doing incredible
things in the world,” said Ferrera. “I have no doubt women have been doing
it for generations, but those stories don’t tend to get told. Which is why
I am proud to partner with an iconic brand like The North Face, to bring
resources and increased visibility of female role models to young women and
help the next generation see what’s possible.”

In addition, in the US, The North Face will be expanding the focus of
the Explore Fund Grants initiative to 750,000 dollars, with a new 250,000
dollars grant programme focused on enabling female exploration. This new
annual grant will honour Ann Krcik, who was a long-time leader at The North
Face and one of the founders of the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition
(now Camber Outdoors). The Explore Fund was founded in 2010 and has given
2.75 million dollars to over 500 nonprofits in support of furthering
outdoor exploration.

Images: courtesy of The North Face